


Tell Me

by spinner33



Series: CM - Close to Canon [29]
Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-28
Updated: 2015-11-28
Packaged: 2018-05-03 19:15:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5303468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spinner33/pseuds/spinner33
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>JJ thinks Will is cheating on her, and she turns to the team for emotional support.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tell Me

“Tell me I’m beautiful. Tell me you love me. Tell me you love my butt, and that it doesn’t matter if I’m two sizes bigger than when we met. Tell me you don’t care that I have crooked teeth.”

Reid opened the front door and stared in concern at JJ. She leaned unsteadily against the doorframe and took a deep breath. There were tears in her eyes and on her face. She smelled strongly of alcohol and misery. Reid looked back into the house for a moment.

“Hotch?” Spencer called out. “I….I think it’s for you.”

“I shouldn’t have come,” JJ sighed, taking a stab at drying her eyes. She turned to go and nearly fell. Reid pulled her inside the house and closed the door.

“JJ, are you okay?” Spencer worried, taking her hands and rubbing tenderly. It was unseasonably cold for early spring, and she was not wearing a coat.

“Just tell me I’m beautiful. I need to hear that I’m beautiful.”

“Jennifer Jareau, of course you’re beautiful. You always have been, and you always will be, inside and out. You are exaggerating your change in size. In the time I have known you, you have actually lost weight. Besides that, your teeth are without a doubt the straightest, cleanest, most perfect….”

JJ threw her arms around Reid’s neck and backed him up against the wall, smashing their mouths together. His eyes shot open wide, and he struggled to get out of her clinging grip.

“HOTCH!?” Reid called out before JJ seized him again in an even-more-ardent kiss. While the top halves of their bodies were locked together, the bottom half of his body was trying to get away from hers, because she was ruffling her fingers up under the hem of his tee-shirt.

Aaron emerged from the tv room, carrying the remote and looking cross.

“Everything…oh! Whoa! JJ, would you get your lips and hands off my partner?” Hotch scolded as he pulled the two of them apart. JJ let go of Reid, who was panting for breath, backing away from her, truly frightened.

“He doesn’t love me anymore!” JJ sobbed.

“I love you very much, but platonically,” Reid stressed to JJ, cautiously taking her hand and petting it again.

“No! Will… it’s Will! He's seeing someone else. He’s got a girlfriend. He’s cheating on me,” JJ cried. Reid opened his arms, and JJ hid in his embrace, crying against his chest.

“Tell me what happened,” Aaron said deeply as he pulled out his gun and checked the number of bullets in the clip.

“I came home,” JJ said, taking a deep breath and gesturing with one hand. The team had been gone all week and had returned to town only a handful of hours ago. “There’s messages all over the machine for him from some little bitch named Dani…..”

“Dani?” Hotch echoed, putting away his gun. Reid’s eyes narrowed.

“Weren’t there messages on our machine from a Dani too? She wanted you to call?” Spencer asked. Hotch shook his head quickly no and gave Reid a meaningful stare. Of course, that went right over Reid’s head.

“Will is cheating on me. I just know it,” JJ cried.

“JJ, no, come on. Maybe it’s a misunderstanding,” Reid offered. “Will is not the sort of man who would step out on you while you were away on work. He’s not that kind of man,” Reid said, feeling helpless in the face of her overwhelming grief. He looked to Hotch for help. Aaron was dialing his phone and smiling.

Smiling?

“Will? Yeah, it’s Hotch. Are you at home?”

“No. That’s where I was,” JJ interrupted impatiently. 

“Where are you?” Aaron asked.

“He’s probably with that cheap slut right now,” JJ sobbed. Reid hugged her again and failed to be comforting, but not for lack of effort.

“Will, you need to come over. Right now. It doesn’t matter if you’re not ready to do this. I’m serious. Get over here now," Hotch ordered.

“How could he cheat on me? After all we’ve meant to each other? After I jeopardized my career to give him a child? After I’ve taken care of him while he’s searched for a job?”

“Maybe you’re wrong,” Reid offered again. “Will is not a cheater. He worships you. I will be so disappointed in him if he’s cheating on you.”

“You’ll be disappointed?!” JJ howled.

“Why don’t you take JJ to the kitchen and make her some black coffee?” Hotch said, putting away his phone.

“I need a bathroom,” Jareau announced suddenly, holding her mouth.

Reid guided JJ through the house, and barely got her into the bathroom off the kitchen before she began to lose the contents of her stomach. Spencer knelt on the floor with Jennifer, holding back her hair, washing her face with a bright green wash cloth, and cooing soft words at her.

“JJ, it’ll be okay. Don’t worry. I’m sure it’s a misunderstanding.” 

“What if it isn’t?” JJ cried.

“Then we’ll kill him in the bathtub, dismember him with my jigsaw, and lose his parts on a fast road-trip between here and California,” Reid calmly replied.

"You'd kill Will for me?" JJ cried. 

"With my bare hands," Reid nodded.

JJ laughed, she cried, and she stuck her head back in the toilet to throw up again.

“Are you okay?” Spencer whimpered.

“Coffee will be done soon,” Aaron promised from the kitchen. Reid looked up and wondered again why Hotch was grinning so brightly when JJ was so miserable.

Will arrived twenty minutes later. He almost hit one of the trees in the driveway, pulling his truck in behind JJ’s not-so-neatly parked sedan. LaMontagne jumped out, ran up onto the front porch, and pounded on the door. JJ was sitting at the dining table, rubbing her eyes, nursing a large mug of coffee. She started crying again when she heard the pounding.

“If that’s Will, I never want to see him again. He can go live with Dani. Whatever he has to say to me, he can tell Spence. Because I am so not listening. I am so done with him. I am through. That’s it. If he cares so damned little about me that he is going to let some…..”

Jareau ranted, and Reid nodded in sympathy and concern as Hotch went to answer the door. Will burst through and ran into the dining room without even stopping to greet Hotch.

“Jennifer! Baby! What are you doing here?”

“I’m leaving you. But you’re moving out. Dani can have you, you no-good, cheating bastard!” JJ screamed angrily. Reid held her back as she took a swing at Will.

“What is the matter?” Will puzzled. Reid gave him a faint frown.

"Like you don't know?" Spencer challenged. Hotch waved both hands in an effort to get Reid's attention. He did notice, bless him, and he did stop, thankfully. Aaron rolled his eyes anyway.

“Why are you mad at me, Baby?” Will wanted to know.

“DANI! She left messages for you on the machine, talking about how she was waiting to hear from you, couldn’t wait to give you her surprise!” JJ howled.

"If you'd let me explain...." Will begged. "If you'd let me apologize."

JJ pushed Reid at Will. “I’m not talking to you. You can apologize to Spence.”

“Did you talk to Dani?” Will wondered. "Do you know what she wants?"

“NO! She wanted to talk to you!” JJ shouted. “Why don’t you call her and ask her what she wants?”

“Hey…” Aaron intervened when JJ tossed the salt shaker at him. Hotch caught it and set it back on the table. Reid picked up a sprinkle of salt and fingered it away into the air.

“Baby, Dani works at a jewelry store,” Will said slowly.

“Why do I give a fuck where she works?!” JJ screamed. Reid straightened up, inhaling deeply. He gave Hotch a quick glance, and Hotch winked at him. A hopeful smile crept onto Spencer’s face. “I’m done talking to you. You can talk to Spence,” JJ repeated, putting herself back to back with Reid.

“Okay. Fine. Spencer, I know this might seem odd and a bit sudden…” Will began as he was getting down on his knees. He pulled a tiny black velvet box from his pocket and clasped Reid’s right hand. "Will you marry me?”

JJ screamed out, and clutched Reid’s upper arms with all ten nails.

“You know,” Reid winced, “as tempting as that offer is, I’m already spoken for.”

He stepped aside, rubbing the deep red dents in his arms, hiding himself next to Hotch.

JJ had both hands over her face. “I’m an idiot,” she whispered. 

“Yeah, but you’re my idiot, and I love you,” Will grinned at her.

“Will, it’s beautiful. It’s too beautiful. It’s too big. We can’t afford this, not right now,” JJ shook her head as she admired the ring he was putting on her finger.

“It’s not right now. This is forever. That’s how long I want you by my side, in my heart, forever and always. I love you, Jennifer Jareau.”

JJ took a deep breath, put a hand over her mouth, and ran back through the kitchen. She slammed the bathroom door. Aaron, Spencer, and Will all cringed as they heard her losing whatever was left in her stomach.

“Was that a yes or a no?” Will worried quietly.

“You might have to ask for clarification when she’s sober tomorrow,” Reid suggested timidly. Will smacked him on the backside.

“Well, if she says no, the offer still stands,” LaMontagne teased him. Reid blushed brightly in reply.

“He’s spoken for,” Hotch replied, taking Reid in his arms, and hugging him close.

“You want some coffee?” Spencer asked Will after dotting a kiss on Hotch's pursed lips.

“No. We should go home. We’ve made enough of a spectacle of ourselves, I think,” Will said slowly.

“We can’t go home yet,” JJ whined as she opened the bathroom door, looking green and ghoulishly pale.

“Why not?” Will asked.

“Emily is there with Henry. Morgan is out looking for you.”

“That’s bad,” Reid nodded. He picked up his phone and dialed. "Morgan? Reid. Found him. It's all good. Okay? All good. I'll explain later. Bye. You too. Bye."

"Better Morgan than Emily out looking for you," Hotch assured Will grimly.

"Jesus, Baby, what did you think was going on?" Will drawled.

“I was mad at you. I….I….um…” JJ couldn’t finish the sentence. She winced and closed her eyes. “I called Rossi too. I was crying. He said he was going to call some of his friends to find you and demand an explanation.”

Hotch was already calling Rossi on speed-dial.

“DAVE! Whatever you’re doing, undo it. No. False alarm. Call them off. Little misunderstanding. Okay? No. Call them off. Okay. I’ll explain later. Bye.” 

“Everything okay?” JJ cringed.

“All taken care of,” Aaron promised.

“Let’s go home,” Will smiled, almost as wan as JJ now. He took her hand and dotted a careful kiss on her cheek.

“I hope we can reach Garcia,” JJ whispered on the way out the door. Hotch was dialing the phone again.

"Drive carefully," Reid waved from the doorway.

"Garcia? Whatever you're doing, stop right this second. No, you need to fix that. Will is going to need his credit rating in good condition. No, no, we don't need to have Will arrested on suspicion of espionage and thrown into Gitmo. Penelope? Listen to me. Get everyone together and come over here. On the double. I'll explain when you're all here. See you in a few."


End file.
